Hannibal the Cannibal’s TV Series Lands at NBC

An entire TV series based around Anthony Hopkins’ Hannibal The Cannibal character from “Silence of the Lambs”, “Red Dragon”, and “Hannibal”? Man, I honestly have no idea how that’s going to work. What, are they going the “Dexter” route and showing us the “softer” side of the serial killer who likes to eat his victims post-death? Or maybe they’re going the completely revisionist side and rebuild the character as a kinder, gentler serial killer. Once again, ala “Dexter”?

I have no idea how they’re going to approach this, and maybe that’s one of the real intriguing aspects of “Hannibal”, a new TV show from producer Bryan Fuller (“Heroes”, “Pushing Daisies”) that has now landed over at NBC. The idea is for Fuller to write a pilot script that, if the network likes it, they will instantly greenlight a 13-episode first season. That’s pretty unconventional in today’s network TV world, where shows usually get a limited amount of episodes to prove that they deserve more.

Hopkins, of course, originally played the role (originally created by author Thomas Harris) in the Academy Award winning “Silence of the Lambs”, and came back to reprise the killer two more times. Hollywood then made a prequel called “Hannibal Rising” that explored the killer’s origins. It didn’t really go over that well.

And I still have no idea how they’re going to turn this into a TV series. I guess we’ll find out. Unless, of course, Fuller’s script doesn’t go over well with the NBC brass, in which case, er, we probably won’t find out.